Over at PJ Media I discuss the all-too-predictable blind spot of “this country’s most influential conservative Christian thinker”:
Princeton Professor Robert P. George is a leading American conservative thinker, with some undeniably outstanding accomplishments. The New York Times has hailed him as “this country’s most influential conservative Christian thinker.” But as is the case with many mainstream conservatives, George has a peculiar blind spot regarding the Islamic jihad threat and the oppressive character of Sharia, Islamic law.
George’s blind spot is peculiar in light of the fact that he has been criticized for his membership on the board of directors of The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which has provided funding for foes of jihad terror including David Horowitz, Frank Gaffney and Daniel Pipes. And he sees some aspects of the jihad threat with supreme clarity: last August, he warned that the Islamic State would carry out “mass slaughter in the United States” unless it were quickly “destroyed as a fighting force.” He explained that Islamic State jihadis “have every intention” of getting into the United States,
and these are people who achieve what they set out to achieve. Unless somebody stops them, they make good on their threats. They have threatened to carry out activity in the United States — killing people, mass slaughter in the United States.
Yet George’s awareness of the dangers of the Islamic State have not dimmed his open admiration for some aspects of the Islamic law that the Islamic State is dedicated to implementing. In February 2014, George published a piece in the Catholic journal First Things titled “Muslims, Our Natural Allies.” He included in his article a video in which an organizer of an event titled World Hijab Day defended her right to cover her hair; George proclaimed:
I am a Catholic. My Church teaches me to esteem our Muslim friends and to work with them in the cause of promoting justice and moral values. I am happy to stand with them in defense of what is right and good. And so I stand with the young woman in the above video in defense of modesty, chastity, and piety, just as I stand with Muslims like my dear friends Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Dr. Suzy Ismail against the killing of unborn children and the evil of pornography, and with my equally dear friend Asma Uddin of the Becket Fund in defense of religious freedom.
George dismisses the grim reality of Muslim women being brutalized or even killed for not wearing a hijab with a defensive note:
I have no doubt that in certain cultures, including some Muslim cultures, the covering of women is taken to an extreme and reflects a very real subjugation, just as in sectors of western culture, the objectification of women (including the sexualization of children at younger and younger ages) by cultural pressures to pornify reflects a very real (though less direct and obvious) subjugation. But, of course, we are in the happy position of not having to choose between the ideology of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and that of Hugh Hefner.
Yet if George’s concern is really for “moral values,” it is odd that he has never written about the fact that many Muslim women don the hijab not out of modesty, but out of fear. It is, in fact, far more likely that women will be victimized for not wearing it than for wearing it. In recent years, a Canadian Muslim girl, Aqsa Parvez, was choked to death with her hijab by her father after she refused to wear it. Amina Muse Ali, a Christian woman in Somalia, was murdered because she wasn’t wearing a hijab. Forty women were murdered in Iraq in 2007 for not wearing the hijab.
There are many other such cases. As George stands with Muslims “in defense of what is right and good,” are these women not entitled to defense? George grounds his naïve and uncritical stance in the teachings of the Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council, which states that Muslims “worship God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has also spoken to men,” and “highly esteem an upright life and worship God, especially by way of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting.”
It is unlikely, however, that the fathers of the Second Vatican Council meant by these words to exempt Islam and Muslims from justifiable criticism for human rights abuses sanctioned by Islamic law, to say nothing of the increasing violent persecution of Christians in Egypt, Nigeria, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and elsewhere – about which George has likewise been silent.
George likewise quotes the Second Vatican Council as saying:
Over the centuries, many quarrels and dissensions have arisen between Christians and Muslims. The sacred Council now pleads with all to forget the past, and urges that a sincere effort be made to achieve mutual understanding; for the benefit of all men, let them together preserve and promote peace, liberty, social justice and moral values.
Yet “mutual” understanding is precisely what has been lacking. In January 2011, Pope Benedict XVI condemned the bombing of the Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Alexandria, Egypt, by Islamic jihadists — whereupon al-Azhar broke off its dialogue with the Vatican and said it would not be restored until the pope affirmed that Islam was a religion of peace for which he had respect. Pope Benedict did not do this. Pope Francis has. In September 2013, he wrote to Ahmed Al Tayyeb, the grand imam of al-Azhar, affirming his respect for Islam; the grand imam replied that “casting Islam in a negative light is ‘a red line’ that must not be crossed.” George has followed this line, repeatedly speaking positively about Islam while ignoring the persecution of Christians as well as Sharia oppression.
George writes: “Let those of us who are Christians reject the untrue and unjust identification of all Muslims with those evildoers who commit acts of terror and murder in the name of Islam.” Very well. But George has shown himself to be rather uncritical in his choice of “dear friends” among Muslims. He has praised his friend and collaborator Hamza Yusuf as someone he hoped would “have an even greater influence, not just in the Islamic community but in America.” Yet Yusuf is himself no stranger to “untrue and unjust” identifications, as he has described Judaism as “a most racist religion” and the United States as,
a country that has little to be proud of in its past and less to be proud of in the present….I became Muslim in part because I did not believe in the false gods of this society whether we call them Jesus or democracy or the Bill of Rights.
On September 9, 2001, Yusuf warned that,
this country is facing a very terrible fate. The reason for that is that this country stands condemned. It stands condemned like Europe stood condemned for what it did…. This country [America] unfortunately has a great, a great tribulation coming to it. And much of it is already here, yet people are too to illiterate to read the writing on the wall.
Yusuf has likewise claimed that the blind sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, who masterminded the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was “unjustly tried” and “condemned against any standards of justice in any legal system.”
In September 2004, Yusuf proudly declared at a convention of the Hamas-linked Islamic Society of North America that he had taken Daniel Pipes’ test for Islamic moderation: “I took that test and I failed. And I want to say to all of you, I hope you fail that test too.”
Among Pipes’ questions:
- Do you condone or condemn the Palestinians, Chechens, and Kashmiris who give up their lives to kill enemy civilians? Will you condemn by name as terrorist groups such organizations as Abu Sayyaf, Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, Groupe Islamique Armée, Hamas, Harakat ul-Mujahidin, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, and al-Qaida?
- Modernity: Should Muslim women have equal rights with men (for example, in inheritance shares or court testimony)? Is jihad, meaning a form of warfare, acceptable in today’s world? Do you accept the validity of other religions? Do Muslims have anything to learn from the West?
- Secularism: Should non-Muslims enjoy completely equal civil rights with Muslims? May Muslims convert to other religions? May Muslim women marry non-Muslim men? Do you accept the laws of a majority non-Muslim government and unreservedly pledge allegiance to that government? Should the state impose religious observance, such as banning food service during Ramadan? When Islamic customs conflict with secular laws (e.g., covering the face for drivers’ license pictures), which should give way?…
Is an inability to answer many of these questions in a way that rejects jihad terror and Sharia oppression consistent with George’s stated intention of promoting “justice and moral values”?
Read the rest here.
SallyA says
The sad reality of veiled misogyny in male-dominant inequality (so-called complementarian) Christianity shows forth in the ostensible “blind spots” of leading conservative male Christians like George. Some females have internalized the misogyny of female subordination and at least publicly spout it in exchange for being given a pulpit or other perqs. Women have to make the best lives they can in a world like this.
Yes, Islam institutionalizes a particularly heinous version of men hating women and girls. Yes, despite the evils of Islam, my comments about misogyny in conservative Christianity — which holds to tenets not required to be a Jesus follower and lover of Mary — still stand. Liberalism is filled with misogyny, too, but slanted differently. It’s a global problem crossing all ideological lines. I look forward to your comments. (Not really if they are thinly veiled or overt disparagement, which I will not dignify with a response.) Merry day after Christmas.
mortimer says
We wouldn’t think of disagreeing with you. Only you have the right to disparage.
voegelinian says
Your argument seems to be that the world has other problems beside the deadly evil of Islam. I don’t see how those other problems are relevant to the exigency we face to protect our men, women and children from the mayhem and mass-murder which Mohammedans alone threaten the world with.
martinR says
My impression is that SallyA is upset (carrying her anger on her sleeve) that the horrors being carried out in the name of Islam will detract attention from the feminist’s fight against men, a fight greedily perpetuated, a fight which gives them purpose and energy, even if they have already won!
‘Yes, despite the evils of Islam…’
Have you actually seen what’s happening in the world? As an old man I will welcome a strong well armed military of both men and women to fight back the Muslim hoard and save my community from the evil of Islam!
SallyA’s post reads like a snippet from her thesis ‘The modern feminist vs. misogyny in the Christian church’ that she’s writing, I look forward to more highlights from this seminal work.
It’s time for non-Muslims of both genders to stand up together and fight the coming war against Islam; you can carry on fighting for equal rights after it’s all over.
War on Poverty, War on Cancer, War on Drugs, War on Gangs, War on Women, War on Christmas, War on Terrorism etc.
We now have a REAL war in the coming. Who will put away their petty disagreements and step up to the plate in ‘The War on Islam’!
Tradewinds says
Only Islam is the problem, Sally.
Huck Folder says
Sally prefers shariah?
Whether ugly inside or out,
there might be someone who loves her,
And a tryst which ends with
her male muslim ‘friends’
gathered around her,
getting their rocks off,
yes, even the children,
is a little late for regret.
I think Ali, the Somali,
The Fabulous One,
from Liverpool
might go for her
in a big way.
Wife number three?
Is polygamy misogynistic?
Do beavers shit in the pond?
Huck Folder says
Hey Sally dignify this with a response:
What are your views on pedophilia and FGM?
SallyA says
Pedophilia and FGM, atrocious. What are you doing to oppose it? I’ve done my part. Global internet gonzo gang-rape porn, atrocious, and a related gang rape epidemic globally. Chinese footbinding into the 20th century, atrocious. Six-inch spike heels promoted as 21st century fashion at the end of publicly exposed “groomed” legs “up to there,” as with the other items listed, adversely affecting mainly women, atrocious. Some atrocities obviously worse than others. And such a partial list.
Shane says
Any intellectual who says that Muslims are natural allies of Christians is either not very bright or has never studied the history of Islam. Muslims have been killing, persecuting, raping, and enslaving Christians for over 1,000 years. The Crusades were the Christian answer to hundreds of years of attacks by aggressive Muslims.
That guy should watch these videos to educate himself about Islam and Jihad.
Why We Are Afraid, A 1,400 Year Secret, by Dr Bill Warner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Qpy0mXg8Y
Most important video I have ever seen on Islam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8c38_46W5c
Jack Gordon says
Only a few Catholics manage to keep their heads today and to see with their eyes what is really going on; many others, including the current pope, are bypassing the venerable realism of Catholicism vis-a-vis the world, preferring instead a pathetic irenicism worthy only of fools. To do so requires them to bite their collective tongues dozens of times daily, and to pretend that there is a large Mohammedan crowd out there ready and willing to behave in a civilized manner; of course, thanks to Mohammed’s perverted teachings, there is no such thing. I find even the subtlety and evasiveness of Pope Francis’ condemnations of the wholesale slaughter of Christians in the Middle East to be scandalous, reminiscent of past instances of Catholic silence and double-talk motivated by pusillanimity, the many disgraceful examples provided us by WW II for example.
wildjew says
I think we need to pay careful attention to what Robert George and millions of like-minded Catholics (including the popes) are saying:
“My Church teaches me to esteem our Muslim friends and to work with them in the cause of promoting justice and moral values. I am happy to stand with them in defense of what is right and good. And so I stand with the young woman in the above video in defense of modesty, chastity, and piety….”
zebo says
This guy would never be called “most influental christian conservative blabla” if he wouldn’t play the “islam is peace”-bullshit game
and he”d be instantly fired from princeton if he dares to stop playing to this tune.
And his appearance at the world hijab day is just another brick in the indoctrination wall to educate liberals and especially dumbed down feminists,to calm them and make them think:
“hijab is not against women rights but a real great cultural thing’
I wonder when there’ll be world slavery day to justify muslim slavery,when happy slaves tells us how great it is to be a slave of a muslim.
martinR says
Perhaps ‘World Crucify a Cristian or Jewish Child in the name of Allah day’ funded by the UN.
In a football stadium, Church or Synagogue near you every Saturday and Sunday (bring your own stones).
Huck Folder says
“George writes: “Let those of us who are Christians reject the untrue and unjust identification of *ALL* Muslims with those evildoers who commit acts of terror and murder in the name of Islam.””
Can someone tell me what that faulty (deliberate taqiyya?) error of logic is called? A straw man?
How many critics use terms like ‘all’ or ‘every’ when mentioning evil and islam in the same sentence or paragraph? Is there not an implication in his statement that this is a common occurrence?
“evildoers who commit acts of terror and murder in the name of Islam”, sounds like a euphemism, like George doesn’t want ANY connection between those two concepts. And that sounds complementary to HIS added ‘all’ in the first half. Are there NO moslem criminals? No moslem jails?
Is George going to define for US, what HE thinks constitutes an ‘evildoer’, ‘act of terror’, ‘murder’, and ‘in the name of islam’? I warrant his definitions would vary somewhat with different imams. The scary thing would be, how closely they would align; does he have a shariah mind?
That would be a delicious experiment, to have George (and that other alley-cat George) and Nihad Awad, and Andy Choudary, and a few real sheikhs vs Robert, Pamela, David…write their definitions and put them in sealed envelopes, to be read on some ‘neutral’ TV program like Fox.
Oh, and include that biggy INNOCENT.
eduardo odraude says
Might be hard to survive at Princeton while criticizing Islam. So maybe this guy thinks like this: “Hmm, I can keep my job and my life, OR, I can criticize Islam while working as a university professor. Can’t have both, can I? Hmm. Guess I’ll let Robert Spencer and his pals do my dirty work for me.”
el-cid says
For many years I had the same struggle as Mr. George and, for that matter, the Pope, and most of Western political leaders.
Now, I have come to the conclusion that there is no ‘moderate’ Islam. There are either people who no longer embrace Islam or they are Muslims. If they are Muslims, they are part of a political movement that aims to overthrow all Western countries and enslave humanity. It is more sinister than Stalinism or Naziism because there are so many people already part of the movement.
I am no longer interested in outreach. I am interested in preserving free speech so that the likes of Robert Spencer can be heard in the public square.
martinR says
Well said, and I wholeheartedly agree.
These are dark times and I don’t think this century will end without the world becoming a very different and a very sad place indeed, if it survives as a life supporting planet at all. Perhaps one day far into the future people will make movies about these times, as a warning.
Shane says
The fools who think that they can make friends with Muslims are totally wrong. Muslims only accept outreach from Christians and Jews so that they can promote Islam; Muslims are not interested in hearing about other religions. Islam was created as a Religion of War by the Warlord Muhammad who was a vile human being. Islam will never change.
mortimer says
George has respected Sharia censorship rules by “repeatedly speaking positively about Islam while ignoring the persecution of Christians as well as Sharia oppression.”
As well, George writes: “Let those of us who are Christians reject the untrue and unjust identification of all Muslims with those evildoers who commit acts of terror and murder in the name of Islam.”
In so doing, George has become a ‘dhimmi’ in subjection to Sharia censorship. Without honesty about Islam’s inherent aggression and use of violent jihad, there can be no progress in stopping jihad. The jihad will continue silently and unobserved and uncommented thanks to people like George…whose job is to observe and comment. The truth shall set us free…not whitewash…Dear Doctor George
Salah says
“the grand imam replied that “casting Islam in a negative light is ‘a red line’ that must not be crossed.” ”
It has already been crossed because the world has read your books and history, there is no more place for lies.
Islam is evil and evil must be defeated. There will be no compromise, no whitewashing, no outreach and no political correctness from any true freedom fighter until Islam is no more.
Islam is evil because Muhammad, the “Perfect Man of Islam,” was an evil person:
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2010/12/perfect-man-of-islam.html
voegelinian says
On what basis exactly is Robert George a “conservative”? Even if he passes the test of being a “conservative” it apparently doesn’t matter; he seems to be following the same TMOE meme (the only problem is a Tiny Minority of Extremists, not Islam) which reigns throughout the PC MC mainstream. The “supreme clarity” with which he sees the threat of ISIS Muslims is not only useless for our general problem; it tends to become positively counter-productive to our safety needs.
Tradewinds says
This guy is about as useful in fighting Islam as the current Pope.
Thomas Woodward says
There are no conservative thinkers at Princeton.
wildjew says
Mr. Spencer, most Catholics and especially devout Roman Catholics agree with Robert P. George in this respect; not you, sadly. I have stood shoulder to shoulder with my pro-life Catholic activist neighbors (at our abortion mill) who wondered, why is there this national obsession with the September 11, 2001 Muslim terror atrocities in New York and Washington in light of all the babies who have been murdered in this country? Aren’t Muslims against abortion? Many unwisely consider Islam’s “spiritual values” superior to decadent Western values. You are a voice crying out in the Catholic wilderness. You are the “Jeremiah” or the “Isaiah” in your Church. You are out of step with Church history and some might argue with Church teaching. I know you don’t want to hear it but it is true.
Jackbo Godfrey says
Mr. George, now it is confirmed that you are an Islamophile, appeaser, and denier. Cowards like you that jump on the politically correct “Islamophile” band wagon are traitors to Western Civilization and your so called Christian faith.
Your appeasing and submissive attitude will make you a perfect candidate for Sharia Law and Dhimmitude status. You aint getting no respect from me, other than the power of your self delusion and lies.
I think this article puts you on the permanent “Don’t trust this guy” list. Congratulations!
Angemon says
I bet he never actually sat down with his “Muslim friends” to discuss exactly what’s “right and good”, or even their definitions of those terms. No, it’s quite likely things went like this “you muslims are anti-abortionists and think we need more prayer in schools? You’re just my kind of people!”
Dexter L. Wilson says
This supposedly educated man is a Chris Christie, who signed into a law preventing those who want out of homosexuality, can’t get the counseling they need. Yes, this is old but President Carter’s sister, Ruth Carter Stapleton used reparative therapy and helped many out of the lifestyle. Dumb.governor.! I really don’t think that this man has ever read any of the Qur’an which is their LAW, not a guide book. Their law says destroy the infidel among which are those of the BOOK, the very Bible he professes to believe in to be a Catholic.
That newspaper obviously is full of liberal pseudo-intellectuals who have no knowledge of Islam much less Christianity. Islam is law, Christianity is a relationship. The law killeth but the Spirit brings more alive. 3000 died when the 10 commandments came down from Mt. Sinai, 3000 were made more alive when the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost.
Wellington says
Professor George is ignorant of Islam. For instance, does he even know that in Islamic theology Christ is going to come back at the end of the world and throw all the Christians into Hell for deifying Him? Or does he know that the People of the Book stuff means that Christians and Jews will be given some rights (“scraps” would be a more accurate word) under Muslim rule but only if they acknowledge their Muslim masters as their superiors?
Vatican II remains the unmitigated disaster it has been from the outset. Vatican II created loosey/goosey, kissy-face/huggy-bear Catholicism. It also effectively destroyed the Latin Mass which, aesthetically, was quite beautiful. Pope John XXIII began this unnecessary and harmful Council and thus he can be put in the category of disastrous Popes. The present Pope very much seems to date that he can be put in this infamous category as well.
Islam beneftis from a vapid and muddled Catholicism. Certain popes, Vatican II and Professor George are contributors here. This is harmful not just to the Church but to humanity.
Kepha says
As a Protestant fundamentalist, I do not hate Muslims irregardless. But I do believe that Islam is an evil religion, and the more people who leave it to follow Christ, the better.
I, for one, do not see Islam as a another bulwark against the immoral revolution (contra George, Kreeft, and people like them). Indeed, Islam supports highly immoral behaviors by its dominant males, as far as I’m concerned. As for Islam’s claim to honor Christ, if it cannot agree with Jesus’ “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45) and “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), it does not honor Jesus of Nazareth at all.
The key to winning this struggle against the global jihad is a spiritual renewal among Christians, and a re-appropriation of Jesus’ Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). While dialogue is useful in getting to know what other people believe, Christians cannot forget that their real calling is mission
Uncle Vladdi says
Re: “the Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council, which states that Muslims “worship God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has also spoken to men,” and “highly esteem an upright life and worship God, especially by way of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting.”
FILTHY LIES!
The only “mercy” ascribed to “allah” are the empty words proclaiming same in the Qur’an, without ANY actual demonstrations of facts or even a single instance of an example of same to back them up!
And according to the Qur’an itself, “allah” has NOT EVER SPOKEN TO MEN. Period.
“Allah” didn’t even bother to speak directly to Muhammad, “the best example of humanity for mankind” choosing in stead to palm the duty to communicate with his “last, best prophit” on the archangel “Gebril!”
On the other hand, since the Catholic church and it’s latest Pope ARE engaged in the allah-vetted muslim practice of LYING FRAUD, then perhaps they weren’t lying when describing them selves as the “natural allies” of the duplicitous and untrustworthy muslims!!!
;-(
Crusader says
The “religion” of Mohammed is evil and has no socially redeeming value. It does not permit free will. Allah is Satan and Mohammed his messenger.
Gloria Stewart says
Pope Benedict the XVI did not apologize for his remarks, but shortly after he made them and the Muslim world went ballistic, he went to the Sofia mosque and prayed. This was taken as an apology by the Muslim world.
I cannot imagine what the Catholic Church and Islam have in common. Islam does not engage in charity. The obligatory Zakat must (according to the Koran) be used for Muslim causes only. That includes all forms of jihad. There are no protocols in Sharia to enable justice by even the most rudimentary definition. Also, Islam does not have a Golden Rule. Muslims are considered superior to non Muslims. The Church may find some ecumenical quotes from the Meccan Koran, but they must be familiar with the two parts of the Koran and the Principle of Abrogation.
At some point in a theological discussion, one must get down to basics. Christianity is a religion of individual salvation. Islam seeks a world wide caliphate by conquest by any means.